Although the country offers many important possibilities for
aquaculture development, fish culture remains a new activity and is very little
developed. Several aquaculture development operations were initiated since 1970.
Two plans were tested nationally for aquaculture development:

o an industrial plan where farmers could produce
great amounts of fish but were highly dependent on a favourable environment
(financing, fingerlings, feed, etc.);

The first farms were however designed as national
administration structures, the operating of which is incompatible with
the requirement of any reliable competing production activity.

Extension materials

Several extension materials, especially demonstration booklets
and leaflets, are used by extension agents in working with potential or
practising fish farmers. FAO has issued a series of volumes on
agricultural apprenticeship, dealing mainly with freshwater
aquaculture. These are lectures or training materials destined to illiterate or
semi-literate people. This FAO collection constituted the support of all the
extension work effected by most projects and especially by the rural fish
culture development Project based in Bouaké.

Sectoral development companies intervened either directly or
through rural development projects jointly financed by the Government and
specialized international institutions. Aquaculture or fisheries activities were
considered as secondary operations in most of these development
companies.

At the end of the 1970s, an important UNDP/FAO fish culture
development project in rural areas was put into place by the Fisheries and
Wildlife Department. New aquaculture offices were created each year until the
entire country was covered by the 1980s. These offices managed the hatcheries,
the aquaculture extension and the supply of nets and feeds. This operation was
popular in the beginning and more than 2 000 farmers nationwide began practicing
fish culture. Unfortunately, disappointment and abandon soon followed, since
output in term of fish production was insignificant and of very small individual
size.

The staff of the extension service of the project included: a
fisheries and wildlife or agricultural engineer acting as the aquaculture
inspector at divisional level; animal and plant production assistants (APVA)
running the aquaculture and fisheries districts; animal and plant production
moniteurs in charge of fish stations and extension management; aquaculture
extension field workers doing aquaculture extension at the bottom.

The aquaculture inspector supervised the aquaculture and
fisheries districts, the field personnel of which varied from 3 to 20 agents
depending on the importance of activities (fish culture and fisheries) in the
region. Each major region of the country (Daloa, Gagnoa, Man, Aboisso,
Bouaké) had its own aquaculture and fisheries district. Each district had
a chief in charge of organizing the office work and its agents, who was in turn
supervised by the aquaculture inspector. The material and financial means
(equipment, motorcycle or other vehicle, financing, etc.) of the districts were
often very limited. Also, existing motorcycles were often inefficiently
used.

The aquaculture inspector, who was supposed to be polyvalent,
collected and analyzed the results, looking for a progressive evolution of the
extension programme. This required his active participation in the district's
activities. The extension agent was the base element in the district, in the
project, and in the national fisheries and aquaculture service. He made weekly
visits on predetermined days to fish farms. Unfortunately, the field extension
workers were not regularly visited by their chief administrators. A lack of
supervision of fish farmers by the extension workers was also observed. Quite
often, extension workers and extension activities were not taken into
consideration when planning programmes and requesting financing. Consequently,
the inventories of fish farmers and fish ponds were not always updated. After
many years of project operations, and a tremendous amount of field work, gaps
were noticed concerning the gathering of harvest results.

The propagation of fish culture did and still relies on
state-run fish hatcheries. These hatcheries have always served as demonstration
and research stations. There are no private hatcheries till date.

Even though they were provided with good extension materials
(posters, awareness booklets and leaflets, view masters with stereo card sets,
slide and film projectors, demonstration notebooks), the major shortcoming of
these agents was that they almost always forgot or ignored how to use these
educational materials. This constant negligence resulted in poor acquisition of
efficient techniques by farmers.

The project staff helped villagers to construct fish farms,
fish ponds for schools and other important units such as floating cages. Three
or four 500 m2 ponds were built near primary schools. Students
participated in the building and were in charge of managing the ponds. The
students, their parents, and their teachers received practical training in fish
culture from demonstrations given by extension agents. Fish harvested from these
ponds were often used in the school cafeteria.

One of the major problems encountered by extension agents
concerned educated fish farmers. Many of them were absentee farm owners and most
refused to follow the instructions given by the agents. They often built farms
in their native villages, which were then turned over to younger brothers or
other relatives to manage. These managers had little interest in the farms
because their efforts were unpaid. Consequently, the farms were often poorly
managed and later abandoned. Among other problems, the following can be listed:
limited number of extension agents (sometimes one agent for a whole region);
inadequate utilization of staff; under-equipment in transportation means in the
districts; limited availability of fingerlings

Current agriculture extension

The National Agency for Rural Development (ANADER) is
currently the prominent agency in charge of agriculture extension nationwide.
ANADER was created in 1993 in the form of a particular mixed economy company.
The missions assigned to ANADER included among others the promotion of the
professionalism of agricultural producers in all production sectors, and the
oversight of all agricultural activities and operations aiming at the promotion
of the development in the rural milieu.

In the Training and Visit (T&V) approach,
applied by ANADER, the agriculture advisor establishes a work programme based on
the farmers' needs. This programme consists of supplying the advice necessary to
obtain the commonly defined objectives. The agent holds demonstrations on
parcels of land and follows the derived applications.

ANADER has demonstrated in the Ivoirian institutional
hierarchy his key role as a privileged partner in the rural world, a company
that provides reliable advice to farmers. The introduction of participatory
diagnostics as the basic tool used to diffuse technical themes to producers has
helped identifying pertinent themes capable of answering the questions posed by
farmers. Its extension resources include tools that are well mastered by its
agents. The main indicators (number of contact target groups, training rate,
number and quality of demonstration units, etc.) are evaluated and improved from
year to year. One of the major innovations is the identification of ANADER's
target population. Unlike past practice, the agency's interventions will target
common interest groups, including cooperatives, miscellaneous associations
interested with local development, NGOs, natural groupings and/or private
volunteer farmers.

ANADER is in the process of confirming its abilities in
aquaculture and shows them throughout its contact groups. Because of its large
agricultural advisory network (CA), it touches a large number of aquaculture
candidates who are then directed towards specialized technicians in aquaculture
within the zone. Some constraints however persist, including duplication of
services and means in the field, poorly adapted extension system and poorly
trained agriculture advisors in many cases. Staff is insufficient both in
numbers and in professional qualifications. This staff is also poorly
distributed geographically, and has decreased drastically in the last few years
(110 in 1996 versus 300 in 1990). This fact coupled with the relative newness of
aquaculture activity has not favoured the creation of reliable professional
organizations, or the generalized installation of private farmers capable of
perpetuating the aquaculture sector.

ANADER has a large operating mechanism, covering the entire
country, mastering the essential tools of the Training and Visit
extension method. Its actions concern a great number of farmers. However, in
spite of the huge amount of means mobilized and the intensity of activities
carried out at all levels of the approach, the overall analysis shows that the
results, in terms of socio-economic impact, are still limited to a few success
stories isolated in time and space. Demonstrations provided to producers by the
system do not yield high adoption rates. The supervisor lacks skill to fulfill
his function, and the specialized technicians are almost exclusively focused on
production, ignoring all pre- and post production aspects. Basic agents are
poorly trained and unable to rally flexibility. Extension operations, R&D
and agricultural professional organization support are almost exclusively based
on technical demonstrations and field trial results or classroom training for
cooperants. Exchange visits between farmers and field-days using modern
audio-visual tools are lacking. All in all, the T&V system appears rather
rigid, and alternate approaches are needed.

Current organization of agriculture extension

National Agency for Rural Development (ANADER). The
aquaculture development policy is presently managed by the Ministry of
Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRA), which, via the General Production
Department and the Fisheries Production Department, handles this mission in
collaboration with regional MINAGRA offices, ANADER and the National Analyses
Laboratory, or within the framework of individual projects.

Originally, the technical and administrative oversight of
these aquaculture and fisheries offices was handled by the Department of
Aquaculture and Fisheries from Abidjan. This Department prepared the budgets and
disbursed all funds allocated to these structures. It also handled all training,
recruitment, and promotions or transfers deemed necessary for all aquaculture
and fisheries agents. Regional MINAGRA offices are now directly responsible of
these management actions. There is still, however, some institutional
clarifications required concerning the responsibility for support operations for
fisheries professionals by ANADER. Extension staff is insufficient both in
numbers and in professional qualifications. This staff is also poorly
distributed geographically, and has decreased drastically in recent years (110
in 1996 versus 300 in 1990).

Current extension methods and results

The multiplicity of structures proposing aquaculture extension
and training constitutes a handicap for the overall success of this discipline,
since fish farmers receive conflicting recommendations coming from the different
oversight structures. Facing the situation, a farmer will decide to try a
technique based on his own feeling, which may lead him to dramatic failure.
Field results are very contradictory, and it is currently difficult to have a
clear vision of the performances of the different extension and training
services. In some regions, the Aquaculture Division (from the Ministry of
Agriculture) and ANADER intervene simultaneously, which renders more difficult
the evaluation of each service.

The Lagoon Aquaculture Project, based in Abidjan, was
initiated in the mid 1980s and also included an extension service. The project
lasted about 15 years and was interested in all fish farmers (tilapia or
catfish) in all lagoon areas. Its extension service dealt either with individual
farmers or cooperatives.

The ADB - West Project based in Man initiated its aquaculture
extension programme as early as 1994. This programme still goes on. The
aquaculture extension service is directed by an agricultural engineer and has an
office in each of the major administrative departments (about six) of the
region. Each of these offices is directed by one animal and plant production
assistant (APVA) who is assisted by one or two animal and plant production
moniteurs. The programme has the necessary equipment (vehicles, motorcycles,
fishing gears, etc.) to accomplish the work. The farmers dealt with are either
individuals or cooperatives.

In the North of the country, a Vocational Cooperative was
created after an intense informational campaign and represents the very first
and most important extension operation for tilapia (Oreochromis
niloticus) pond culture in Côte d'Ivoire. Unfortunately, this activity
did not meet the expectations of the farmer-fish culturist, especially in
regards to increases in his animal protein consumption and his income.

The Periurban Project, based in Daloa (West-Central Côte
d'Ivoire), chose its target group among people interested in fish culture as
their main income-earning activity. Preference was given to the installation of
people with few resources and for whom fish would represent the main cash
crop.

Aquaculture development requires the implantation of
professional relays. Once the target group is identified, training programmes
need to create autonomous fish culturists. This demands highly motivated and
technically competent trainers. The trained professionals would establish the
services they require independently of government. Creation of a dynamic
professional organization would allow for a better understanding of fish
culturists' needs by society in general.

Training. Till date, the training of almost all
fish culturists is carried out by agents from the Fisheries Production
Department, usually through projects. ANADER is supposed to be the only training
agency. In fact, very few ANADER agents are trained in aquaculture. A recently
created NGO (APDRA - Côte dIvoire) also helps in diffusing
aquaculture systems.

Conclusions

Since the creation of ANADER in 1994, the role of the agents
from the Fisheries Production Department has been unclear. ANADER claims a right
to aquaculture extension services, the same as all other extension services in
the rural environment. It also claims competence in fish culture, as well as in
coffee, cocoa or rice culture.

Government services (i.e., Fisheries Production, Fisheries and
Wildlife), aquaculture development projects and NGOs propose to farmers
different systems and methods usually knick-named technology
packages. Their promoters claim them to be better than the others, or as
being the ultimate solution to the problem of aquaculture development. Some of
them are imposed during the beginning of aquaculture projects, which are almost
entirely financed by foreign funds. Definitely, many alternative approaches are
necessary to generate the sustainable take off of aquaculture development in
Côte dIvoire.